Foreign & Indigenous Influences in Indian Printmaking

The art of modern printmaking in India dates back less than a century.Howeverprintingin which lie the origins of contemporary printmakingwas introduced to India as early as 1556 by the Portuguese settlers in Goa and became a flourishing industry by the mid-18th century under colonial British rule.It thus follows that the medium of printmakinglithography and etching in particular was alien to India and was introduced and taught to Indian artisans by European artistsprinters and printmakers. With the passage of timethe face of printmaking in India has undergone vast changes.From a medium that was essentially a printer’s tool and later the exclusive domain of the European in India to its existence as an indigenous bazaar art in the 19th century and finallyits emergence as an artistic entity in its own right in this centurythe journey has been long and arduous.Much has gone into shaping the birth of contemporary printmaking in India.The influences were manythe medium foreign and the circumstances indigenous – of this was born what we today call ‘Indian Printmaking’.